Born with Big Feet and Made to Move
A Story about a Young Woman’s Big Dream to Visit 25 Countries by the Age of 25 and What She Learned Along the Way
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You were born with amazing feet. They are strong and can take you many places. If you have little feet, big feet, or wheels for feet, they are a gift. This is a story about a young woman named Sara. Sara had big feet and the kids at school made fun of her and called her names. She was hurt by their words and thought something was wrong with her because she was different. Yet her courage and her big feet allowed her to reach her big dream step-by-step. She visited many places and had many adventures as she traveled to 25 countries by the age of 25. Her feet took her on a bus from Dublin to the hillside of Ireland. She placed her feet in a pair of stirrups and went horseback riding across the lavish green countryside. Her feet took her to Guatemala where she painted a mural of the country with other volunteers. She watched local entrepreneurs weave a blanket. Then, with a tour guide, she was able to hike to the top of a volcano and roast marshmallows on the hot lava rocks! Sara met nice, welcoming, and hospitable people in the beautiful country of Ghana. She hiked on a canopy walkway among the tree tops in Kakum National Park. She even encountered elephants in the wild at Mole National Park. Traveling helped Sara learn more about herself and the world around her. She learned that she loves studying new cultures, trying new things, and seeing all the different and beautiful people, nature, and animals on this planet. Sara fed birds, monkeys, and giraffes in Thailand. One giraffe got a kiss! Sara used her feet to explore the world where she discovered the beauty of diversity. Diversity of landscapes, foods, languages, people, music, dance, paintings, and more. Travel helped Sara learn to accept the beauty in things that are different, including her big feet! Your feet are a gift to be loved even if they are big, small, or different in any way.
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About the Book
Readers will appreciate this book’s adventurous spirit and its encouragement to embrace what makes us different. The undercurrent of learning to love what makes one’s body unique will be a touching lesson for many children and their parents. This book is not only a record of one young woman’s travels, but also a record of how traveling enables her to celebrate her feet, whose size had resulted in teasing when she was a kid. Her courage — along with her strong feet — helped her to reach her big dream step by step. Along the way, her feet gave her the strength to move through cities and countries far from her home in the Midwest, making happy memories and learning all about the world around her. Whenever she visited new places, she discovered so much about the land, the culture, the food, the people, and much more. Even more importantly, she learned how to love herself just the way she was — including her big feet! The message is twofold: it is good to explore this beautiful world, and traveling with an open mind and open heart will lead to increased self-love and a deeper appreciation of diversity. The travel checklist at the end intends to help you take the story out of the realm of imagination and into the real world, encouraging you to embrace Sara’s dream to travel abroad, as your own.
About the Author
Sara J. Gunn grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, with her twin sister. She traveled through volunteer internships, study abroad programs and visited neighboring countries at every opportunity. She worked multiple jobs and traveled on a budget. She currently lives in the Washington D.C. area as she works on writing other books and learns more about her surroundings, the value of self-care and embracing her unique self. She loves every inch of her feet, shoe size 11, that have carried her all over the world to twenty-five countries by the age of twenty-five. www.facebook.com/BornWithBigFeet